Automatic Leather Species Identification using Machine Learning Techniques

Content: Identification and classification of leather species becomes valuable and necessary due to concerns regarding consumer protection, product counterfeiting, and dispute settlement in the leather industry. Identification and classification of leather into species is carried out by histological examination or molecular analysis based on DNA. Manual method requires expertise, training and experience, and due to involvement of human judgment disputes are inevitable thus a need to automate the leather species identification. In the present investigation, an attempt has been made to automate leather species identification using machine learning techniques. A novel non-destructive leather species identification algorithm is proposed for the identification of cow, buffalo, goat and sheep leathers. Hair pore pattern was segmented efficiently using k-means clustering algorithm Significant features representing the unique characteristics of each species such as no.of hair pores, pore density, percent porosity, shape of the pores etc., were extracted. The generated features were used for training the Random forest classifier. Experimental results on the leather species image library database achieved an accuracy of 87 % using random forest as classifier, confirming the potentials of using the proposed system for automatic leather species classification. Take-Away: Novel technique to identify leather species Non destructive method Machine learning algorithms to automate leather species identificatio

A Pragmatic Approach Towards the Manufacture of Wet-White Leathers Using a Bio-Polymeric Tanning System

Content: Different tanning materials endow leather with varying colors observable in undyed leathers. Periodateoxidized starch tanned leathers have a yellow tinge or light brown color and get darker with age. The color change in situ is ascribable to iodate ions that are byproducts of periodate oxidation. Iodate ions undergo reduction to form iodine molecules that are yellow or brown in low or at higher concentrations. This study focuses on the removal of iodate ions from Dialdehyde Tapioca Starch (DTS) using a simple precipitation method. Preparation of DTS is by periodate oxidation and precipitation of iodate ions using an inorganic precipitant. The experiments for manufacturing wet-white leathers used pickled goatskins and DTS (unmodified and modified) tanning agents at various percentages based on pelt weight. Glutaraldehyde (GTA) tanning was the control. The percentage removal of iodate ions in modified DTS was 98%. Both unmodified and modified DTS had an aldehyde content of 70%. FT-IR and 1H-NMR confirmed the aldehyde groups. GTA, unmodified, and modified DTS tanned leathers had shrinkage temperatures of 80, 87, and 89°C, respectively. The physico-mechanical properties of the control and experimental leathers are comparable. GTA tanned leather had the typical brown color associated with GTA tannages. The ‘b’ color value of unmodified DTS tanned leather was high confirming yellowing of leathers upon ageing. Wet-white leather tanned with modified DTS had no discernible color change. Analysis of the spent tan liquor shows a reduction in the BOD, COD, TS, and TDS load when compared to GTA tanning system evincing the biodegradability of DTS. This study has overcome the drawback associated with periodate-oxidized starch tanning agents, viz. leather darkening over time, considering the chemical and physico-mechanical properties of the resultant leathers. The novel iodate free DTS can be scaled-up for commercial availability. Take-Away: Removal of iodate ions from periodate-oxidized starch before its use as a tanning agent is imperative to avoid leather color change over time. This study reports the successful removal of iodate ions from Dialdehyde Tapioca Starch (DTS). Wet-white leather tanned with the modified DTS had no observable color change upon ageing

Comparative Studies on Effect of Cationic and Anionic Finishing Agents on Surface Property of Finished Leather

Content: The present work attempts to analyze the surface and physical properties of leathers finished with cationic and anionic finishing chemicals. The contact angles of liquid drops resting on the leather surface have been used to evaluate surface energy, acidity, basicity components of the surface energy, polarity and work of adhesion. Contact angle values have been measured for chrome tanned and conventionally retanned crust and finished leather made by varying pigment and binder combinations. The wettability of finished leather has been correlated with the contact angle values: the higher the contact angle value the lesser is the wetting observed. Complete wetting can be obtained when the contact angle value is zero i.e. the drop of liquid spreads spontaneously on the surface and partial wetting is obtained when the contact angle value is in between 0and 900. Acrylic binders with different film forming properties, protein, polyurethane and butadiene binders have been combined to prepare different finish formulations.The results have been correlated with wet and dry rub fastness, finish adhesion, vamp flexing value, water vapour permeability and water proofness. It has been observed that when the surface of leather is coated with acrylic binder the contact angle value due to polar solvents(water) , non polar solvents(hexadecane) and moderately polar (DMSO) and methyl iodide show that as the thickness of coating increases, the contact angle value decreases for the base coat and sharply increases when top coat is applied. Top coats have the ability to increase the contact angle and they improve the performance properties of leather such as water resistance, fastness, finish adhesion etc. Cationic and anionic finishing formulations have been compared to study their effect in modifying the surface of finished leather based on contact angle values, wet and dry fastness to circular rubbing and water resistance. It has been observed that leathers finished using anionic finishing technique shows better wet rub fastness and water resistance effect compared to cationic finishing technique. Take-Away: The effect of number of top coats on water contact angle value were determined ,and the experiment showed that the value were decreased gradually at the beginning of the coat because the top coats are water based so during the coating process the hydrophobic nature of the surface of chrome tanned leather have decreased. The experimental result from contact angle value showed that coating with pigments and binders have increased the contact angle value compared to the control crust. It has been observed that leathers finished using anionic finishing technique shows better wet rub fastness and water resistance effect compared to cationic finishing technique

Striding towards self sustainability using Aluminium from Tanzanian kaolin for combination Tanning system

Content: Sustainability is a key factor which control future leather manufacture. Developing several new technologies is one of the primary agenda for sustainability. However, developing countries are facing several challenges which not only limited to best practice technologies but also finding self sustainability in maximizing the available resources. In the present study, an attempt has been made to explore the potential resource of aluminium from kaolin of Pugu hills, Tanzania for combination tanning. Though, extraction of aluminium from several resources are available, there is limited literature pertaining to Tanzania resources. Moreover, the extracted aluminium is basified and studied for its tanning efficiency. Diffraction and vibrational spectroscopic studies were carried out to assess the confirmation of extracted aluminium. Combination tanning has been carried out with vegetable tannins and dialdehyde starch tanning chemicals, which are from natural resources. Leathers tanned with aluminum and wattle resulted with a shrinkage temperature of 118ºC as compared to Al-Dialdehyde starch leathers showed around 90-100ºC. Physical strength characteristics such as tensile, tear and grain crack strength met the standard norms. Grain surface of leathers are found to be smooth which has been confirmed through microscopic studies. The study provides a new insight on accomplishing self sustainability through available resources and manufacture of eco-friendly system. Take-Away: 1. Tanzania is endowed with massive kaolin rich in aluminium, which is potential for application in leather industry for sustainable development of leather industry 2. The combination tanning system using aluminium from Tanzania kaolin with wattle tannins or Dialdehyde starch imparts leather with both physical and organoleptic properties that meet the stipulated norms 3. This new tanning system provides new insight on ecofriendly tanning system for the sustainability of leather industry

High Exhaustion Sytem (HES) for leather process: Role of biocatalyst as an exhaustive aid for wet-end

Content: Application of biocatalyst becomes an imperative due to their eco-friendly advantages. Enzymes in pretanning for unhairing, fiber opening, defleshing and bating are well reported and practiced. However, the role of enzymes as a chemical aids is less explored and consider as a secondary applications. Leather enzymes are known for its hydrolytic behavior which makes it more suitable for pretanning operations. However, typical chemical exhaustive aids acts as a vehicle for the diffusion of chemicals, whereas enzymes aids in the splitting of fibers which facilitate the diffusion of chemicals and create more functional sites for the tanning and post tanning chemicals to interact. In this research, pickled pelts are treated with acid protease and subsequently tanned using chrome tanning agent. Enzymatic treated pelts resulted in better uptake of chromium as compared to conventionally processed leathers. Similarly, after neutralization, chrome tanned leathers are treated with alkaline protease to conventional post tanning has been carried out. Enzymatic treated wet blue leathers showed high uptake of post tanning chemical, uniform dyeing and reduction in the pollution load. From the preliminary research, an interesting finding has augmented that application of enzymes at an optimized concentration, temperature, pH and time would lead to better uptake of chrome which reduces the pollution and minimization pollution load in post tanning. This study, emphasize on the application of enzymes in tanning and post tanning for higher diffusion of chemicals. Take-Away: 1. Replacement of conventional exhaustive aids using biocatalyst 2. Higher exhaustion rate of tanning and post tanning chemicals 3. Futuristic technology for sustainable leather manufactur

A Secure Framework for Mollifying Attacks in Cloud

Abstract: The cloud computing becoming a major platform for storing the data from various organizations, instead of storing their data with them store in the cloud with this reducing the money as well as work load. We use computers to store and access the personal data as well as business information in the cloud. By this new communication and computing pattern new security issues will arise. The present data encryption techniques are not providing security from data hackers to theft the data. Especially those are performed by insider cloud provider. We introducing a new technique for providing security in the cloud, that's a decoy technique, means fault data. Always we will watch data access in the cloud, for detecting abnormal data access, when unauthorized user is noticed will ask some security questions for verifying, we will provide a large amount of decoy data to protect the original data from the attackers, Experiments accompanied in a local file setting provide proof that this method may provide unmatched levels of user data security in a Cloud environment

Decoding of Attentional State Using High-Frequency Local Field Potential Is As Accurate As Using Spikes

Local field potentials (LFPs) in visual cortex are reliably modulated when the subject's focus of attention is cued into versus out of the receptive field of the recorded sites, similar to modulation of spikes. However, human psychophysics studies have used an additional attention condition, neutral cueing, for decades. The effect of neutral cueing on spikes was examined recently and found to be intermediate between cued and uncued conditions. However, whether LFPs are also precise enough to represent graded states of attention is unknown. We found in rhesus monkeys that LFPs during neutral cueing were also intermediate between cued and uncued conditions. For a single electrode, attention was more discriminable using high frequency (>30 Hz) LFP power than spikes, which is expected because LFP represents a population signal and therefore is expected to be less noisy than spikes. However, previous studies have shown that when multiple electrodes are used, spikes can outperform LFPs. Surprisingly, in our study, spikes did not outperform LFPs when discriminability was computed using multiple electrodes, even though the LFP activity was highly correlated across electrodes compared with spikes. These results constrain the spatial scale over which attention operates and highlight the usefulness of LFPs in studying attention

Molecular Docking and 3D-QSAR Based Design of Novel Imidazopyridinone Derivatives as Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Thymidylate Kinase Inhibitors

Abstract: Thymidylate kinase (TMK) is a potential chemotherapeutic target since it is directly involved in the synthesis of deoxythymidine 5'-triphosphate an essential component in DNA replication. Inhibiting the function of TMK blocks DNA synthesis in replicating organisms. We report 3D-QSAR analysis on a series of thymidine mimetics exhibiting potent inhibitory activity against TMK. Molecular docking, Comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA) and comparative similarity indices analysis (CoMSIA) were carried out to determine the requisite 3D structural features required for potent thymidylate kinase inhibitory activity. The molecules were divided into training set and test set, a PLS analysis was performed and QSAR models were generated. The model showed good statistical reliability which is evident from the q 2 loo , r 2 ncv and r 2 pred . The models were graphically interpreted using CoMFA and CoMSIA contour maps. The results obtained from this study were used for rational design of potent inhibitors against thymidylate kinase

Suitability of selected vegetable tannins traditionally used in leather making in Tanzania

This research article published by Elsevier Ltd., 2020The use of chromium salt has dominated in tanning industry worldwide due to its high versatility in quality leather production. However, Environmental concerns of chromium have shifted the interest of current research to chrome-free and greener chemical processing options. Vegetable tannins, especially when used in combination with some benign metals, have been proven to be environmentally safe and manageable, while producing good quality leather with similar shrinkage temperature as that of chromium tanned. As such, shortage of vegetable tannin supply necessitates characterization of non-commercialized sources locally available to feed cottage tanneries. In the present work, extracts from Acacia mearnsii, Acacia xanthophloea, Euclea divinorum and Euclea racemosa, leached by simple technique at 30–80 °C temperature range were characterized for extract yield, tannin, total flavonoid and phenolic contents, crosslinking ability as well as properties of tanned leather. Results indicate that at 50 °C extraction temperature, A. xanthophloea bark gave extract with properties similar to that of A. mearnsii (commercialized source of tannin). Extract from E. divinorum bark contain fairly less extract yield, tannin, total flavonoid and phenolic contents than that of A. mearnsii, but had good crosslinking ability and tanning performance similar to that of A. mearnsii when used in combination with Aluminium Sulphate [Al2(SO4)3]. The 2% Aluminium Oxide (Al2O3) equivalent was established to be optimal dose of Al2(SO4)3 for extract pre-treatment. E. racemosa barks have high extract yield, but very low crosslinking ability, making it not suitable as a tannin source. This work provides useful information on the potential source of tannins for cottage leather industries in Tanzanian and beyond